


Things We Learned After Love

by sprinkletard



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Break Up, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29027778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprinkletard/pseuds/sprinkletard
Summary: When Natasha and Steve both break up with their respective partners, their friends come up with an idea to help the two of them get over their exes and move on.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	Things We Learned After Love

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first stevenat fic, so I really hope you all enjoy it! please leave some comments below if you like where this is going, have any feedback, or have any ideas you think would be great for the story (because clearly I don’t 😂). I’ve just started school again, so I don’t know how consistent my updates will be, but we will see!

The events of this weekend lingered in her mind as she pulled into her parking spot on Monday morning at work. She hardly got any work done since she spent the last two days arguing with her now ex-fiancé. Natasha sighs as she picks up her work bag and her coffee and opens the car door. “You can get through today, Nat. Just chug the coffee,” she groans as she gets out of her car, shuts the door, locks it and makes her way to the office building.

When Natasha walks into the office, she can already feel Clint’s eyes following her as she makes her way to her desk next to his.

“Jeez, Nat! You look like you haven’t slept all weekend long!” Clint tells her as she plops down in her chair, setting down her coffee and work bag.

“That’s because I haven’t,” she bluntly replies and glares at him. She was not in the mood for Clint’s shit today. Well, actually, she’s never in the mood for his shit.

“You could tell me, you know. I’m your best friend, Nat. I’m here for you if you need to talk,” he tells her again. Natasha sighs and swivels her chair to face him. She holds her left hand up and points to it with her right hand. “That. That’s what happened this weekend.”

“W...what am I supposed to be looking at, exactly?” Clint frowns, not understanding her gesture. “Really? The answer is right in front of your face, stupid,” Natasha deadpans.

“Oh..oh.. OH!!” he takes a closer look and realizes that the engagement ring was missing from her ring finger.

“Holy shit, Nat! When did this happen? Did Oliver hurt you? Are you okay?” he was clearly worried about her, seeing that her eyes were red and she looked like she barely got any rest.

“Saturday night, yes, and no,” she turns back to her desk and buries her face in the palms of her hands. Her eyes were so sore from crying all weekend, and she’s pretty sure she’s got no tears left to cry.

“Nat. You know you don’t have to be here, right? Just call Stark and take the day off. You’re clearly in no state to work, and you need sleep. Then after you wake up, you can tell me what happened and I’ll go give your good for nothing ex-fiancé a giant punch in the face,” Clint tells her, half joking but also half serious.

She looks up and turns to face Clint. “It’s over. There’s nothing that can be done. Trust me, I tried!” Natasha groans in frustration and digs out her laptop from her work bag.

“What did he say, exactly?” Clint is curious, but careful not to pry. He knows the wounds are fresh and she’s probably not ready to talk about it yet, so he keeps his questions vague.

“He just said—“

Before Natasha could even finish her sentence, she is interrupted by Steve and Bucky bickering as they walk to their desks, which just so happens to be in front of hers and Clint’s.

“Stevie, you need to stop moping around over her. Julia made a decision and she left. If she cut you out just like that, it shows how much you meant to her,” Bucky reminds him.

“All I’m saying is that she could’ve given me the chance to at least compromise and work things out,” Steve tells him, with an obvious hint of annoyance in his voice.

“I just think I should call—“

“No!!! You’re not calling her! Are you _crazy_?!” Bucky smacks his shoulder. His best friend really did see the best in everyone and still, after all this time, cared so much for the people who had done him wrong.

Clint and Natasha’s eyes widen as they listen to their bickering and quickly glance at each other before they turn their attention back to their laptops. Natasha watches as Steve places his belongings down on his desk in front of hers and notices that he looks tired and exhausted. It makes sense, considering that they both experienced a breakup of some sort this weekend.

“Well you seem pretty hopeful and optimistic for someone who looks just as good as I do—“ she pauses, and then grins. “Which is, unfortunately, _not_ so good,” she finishes. “I’m feeling like a solid 2.6 out of 10 right now, if you can tell,” she tacks on. Steve laughs and gets the feeling that she’s trying to lighten things up. He ducks his head with a soft smile and takes a seat, then looks up at her again.

“Heavy on the caffeine today?” He asks, nodding to the cup of coffee on her desk.

“You know me so well. A quad shot over ice,” she holds up her coffee and smiles. Steve reaches into his bag to pull out his laptop and sets up for the work day ahead.

“Steve,” she begins, “if it’s any consolation, I’m sorry, and I hope—“ she gets cut off by Bucky before she could finish.

“Wait, I know why Steve looks like a wreck, but why do you look _just_ as bad, Natasha?” Bucky asks.

“Well, maybe it’s because Oliver broke off our engagement and called off our wedding, which is supposed to be happening in three weeks,” Natasha states as she sips her coffee and shrugs.

Almost immediately, Steve stops shuffling through his bag and he looks up at her in shock. Bucky follows suit, and the expression on his face tells her that he’s just as surprised as Steve is.

“Oh my god, Nat… I’m sorry. How are you holding up?” Steve is the first to speak.

“Well, I probably cried my body weight in tears and had an unhealthy amount of pizza and wine… but besides that, I think I’m finally doing okay,” she gives him a smile and shrugs. “For one, I’m not crying anymore, which is a huge improvement,” she adds on.

“I’m so, so sorry, Natasha. He’s a dick for doing that to you. You deserve better, and I hope he gets his ass kicked by the universe. Otherwise, I’ll take it upon myself to make sure his ass gets kicked,” Bucky tells her. She can’t tell if he’s kidding or if he really means it, but hearing that he has her back honestly means so much at the moment.

“Am I witnessing history in front of my eyes? Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff both got dumped over the weekend?!” Clint teases.

“Shut up, Clint!” Steve and Natasha say in unison.

“Relax, I’m just joking! Anyway, the two of you better not go do some idiotic shit like call up your exes. Bucky and I can’t watch you guys all week,” Clint points his fingers at the two of them.

“Last time I checked, Clint, I don’t need a babysitter. And I’m _pretty_ sure that Steve could take care of himself,” Natasha rolls her eyes.

“You know what, I just thought of something that would prevent you two from doing anything stupid,” Bucky speaks up. The three others turn their head into Bucky’s direction.

“Buck, if it’s anything like setting me up on dates to get over Julia, it’s not gonna happen,” Steve protests.

“Relax, Steve! You haven’t even heard my idea yet!” Bucky tells his best friend. “You guys,” Bucky starts again, “should hang out together,” he points to the two of them.

“What do you mean, James? We have so much work to do. The work isn’t gonna finish itself.” Natasha asks. She really did have a lot of work to finish up, and it’s not like she had a productive weekend.

“Nat, I think he’s trying to suggest that you guys hang out together when you’re not working and get over your exes together. That way, you could hold each other accountable and stop each other from doing dumb things, as in calling or talking to your exes, or using each other as a rebound. You guys could create the _Broken Hearts Club_ ,” Clint butts in, with a shit eating grin on his face.

Natasha just _knows_ that Clint is hinting at something else, but she did not have the energy or the patience to bicker with him right now, so she rolls her eyes at him and lets him off the hook this time with a slight punch on his shoulder. Clint winces in pain for a brief moment before going back to work.

“It would be a great idea if I wasn’t swamped with work and didn’t have to spend this next weekend calling to cancel our wedding reservations. Not to mention that I also have to take out all of Oliver’s belongings to either donate—or burn,” Natasha tells them.

“Nat, no burning things. The earth is dying and it doesn’t need your added pollution from burning his belongings,” Steve jokes. She looks back at him with a hint of annoyance in her eyes, but she knows he genuinely means no harm.

“Tell you what,” Steve starts, “what if I helped you clean your apartment and sort out Oliver’s things while you made all those calls?” he suggests. He knows that they could both use some moral support at this time, and it would give him a pretty good thing to focus on besides his breakup with Julia.

Natasha contemplates his offer to hang out—well, technically, not hang out, but spend time together. Outside of work. _Alone_. Just the two of them. Which they had never done before. She’s known Steve the entire time they’ve worked together, which was two almost three years now, so it wasn’t going to be weird that two co-workers were going to be “hanging out” outside of work. However, she figures she could use his help anyway since she could have Steve carry all of those heavy boxes down to the lobby. Not that she couldn’t do it herself—she could—but lifting heavy boxes was not something she particularly enjoyed.

“Okay. Saturday at 8 AM, bright and early,” she tells him after she thinks it through. “But only if you bring breakfast,” Natasha smirks.

“Done. And really, Nat, 8 AM? It’s like I’m going into work. But on a Saturday. I might as well get paid,” he jokes.

“As if you’re not already up at 5 AM running marathons while I’m still in R.E.M. sleep,” she retorts.

“Very funny. I’d get back to work if I were you so we could have a productive Saturday doing things besides work,” Steve replies. His eyes widen almost immediately when he realizes what he might have just implied.

“Wait, uh, that’s not what I—“ Steve begins and tries to clarify what he had said to make sure he wasn’t trying to insinuate anything else, but Clint interrupts him again.

“Mhm. Doing things _besides_ work,” Clint teases in a sing-songy tone.

Natasha looks up at Steve and could see the tips of his ears turning a bright shade of red, which is paired with the sheepish grin on his face. She chuckles at the sight of this, and realizes that she doesn’t actually know what Steve’s like outside of work. This was going to be a fun weekend for sure.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on twitter: @/banangela99
> 
> chapter title inspo: where do broken hearts go by one direction
> 
> hello! if you’re here, let me know what you think about chapter 1. thank you all so much for reading. feel free to leave kudos and comments 💗 i hope you are all staying safe during this weird time!


End file.
